FORECAST - International Platform for Pioneering Ideas

Over the past few weeks, six mentors have chosen a total of 30 project ideas out of more than 450 applications from around the world. The candidates will be discussing and presenting their concepts to the public under the auspices of the Forecast Forum, taking place at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt from March 31 to April 1, 2017.

The Forecast Forum offers two days full of insight into pioneering ideas in fields like architecture, curating, dance, design, music, and video art. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) will become a laboratory where pioneering talents from all continents can bring their project ideas to life in conversations, installations, and presentations. The six experts will help the program participants to develop their ideas and encourage them to break boundaries in terms of working methods and formats. At the end of the Forum, each of the six mentors will select one concept to guide to its fruition. The results of these collaborations will be presented October 20 - 21, 2017 at the Forecast Festival at the HKW.

The projects will be presented online until 30 March.
Here are the concepts at a glance:

Architecture - Mentor: Philippe Rahm (CH)
Rahm is an international pioneer in the field of sustainable architecture. He researches the interdependencies between architecture, climate conditions, and people. Starting with a complex preliminary analysis of a given environment, he develops construction methods for buildings and urban spaces to make new usage scenarios possible

Design - Mentor: Heather Martin (GB)
Martin is a pioneer in the field of user-experience design and an expert on interaction design. At Smart Design, she leads multidisciplinary global teams to develop projects at the intersection of humans and machines.

Flora Miranda (AT), FMVirtualia: An application that enables consumers to design their own clothes.
Jaime Patarroyo (CO), A Momentary Trembling: A spatial construction whose fabric imitates and reflects human sensitivities.
Ricardo O’Nascimento (BR/IT), ProtoSenses: Wearables based on synesthesia, facilitating new communication between humans and machines.
Michel Erler (GER), Gaming is the New Voting: An interactive platform that encourages political engagement.

Curation - Mentor: Hou Hanru (FR)
Hanru is a curator of major exhibitions and projects about twenty-first century topics, and the artistic director of MAXXI, the National Museum for the 21st Century Arts in Rome. He demonstrates his ability to identify emerging artists in his work as a member of international committees and as an art critic.

Annika Kuhlmann (GER), After Work: A think tank founding an art institution for a society without waged labor.
Mika Savela (FI), Curatorial Urbanism(s): The heritage of discussion related to emerging cities in China from the 1990s to 2000s.
Jesi Khadivi (US), Bäd’e Saba: A curatorial project on the use of dust and sand as metaphors in art and culture.
Renan Laru-an (PH), The Artist and the Social Dreamer: An exhibition enacting dictators’ speeches as a medium that initiated a form of globalization.
Tsao Yidi (CN), Gray Matters: Various views of the human brain, from the perspectives of cultural and art history.

Art - Mentor: Björn Melhus (GER/NO)
Melhus explores well-known stereotypes and topics primarily from American films and television shows and their influence on society today. The starting point for his internationally exhibited films and videos is existing audio material, which he reassembles in reenactments to create new narratives.

Joshua Kagimu (UG), Mysteries of Selfies: A video exhibition that deals with people’s alter egos in selfie photographs.
Beny Wagner (GER/US/NL), Obscene Rain: A video based on research on the obscene, as derive from ancient Greek theater.
Anna Sobczak (GER/PL), Nostalgia: A multimedia installation, based on memories, to be transferred into artificial intelligence.
Liliana Piskorska (PL), Public Displays of Affection: A multidisciplinary work that captures increasing public discord in Poland.
Julia Sokolnicka (PL), Playing the Self: An interactive exhibition finds an escape from hyper normalization in society.
Hui Ye (CN), Quick Code Service: A project that questions the impact of QR codes on China’s social reality.

Choreographie - Mentor: Richard Siegal (US)
Siegal is a choreographer and dancer who consistently sets new standards in contemporary dance. One example is the influential if/then method he developed through computer science. Along with his recently founded company Ballet of Difference, he is currently exploring the impact of migration and cultural diversity on classical ballet

Tara Catherine Pandeya (US), Raqistan: A Cartography of the Body: A one-woman show tracing the impact of migration through Central Asian dance.
Ania Soliman (US/PL/ENG), Explaining Dance to a Machine: Choreography for a dog robot performing movements.
Isaac Chong Wai (CN), The Collective Individual Exercises: Performances that explore the idea of individualism and collectivism, personal and public.
Kevin Simmonds (US), Be a Friction: Performance in which movement and music are indivisible, performed as acts of resistance.
Joel Detiege (US), Flambeaux, The Spirit of New Orleans: Music, theater, and dance for a critical examination of creolization in New Orleans.

Music - Mentor: Jennifer Walshe (IE)
Walshe has achieved international recognition with her experimental work as a composer and performer. Her compositions range from electronic sound pieces to theatrical productions and operas. Her spectrum of themes is as broad as her ways of expressing them.

Stefan Maier (CA), Incompossibles: Speculative Thought and Algorithmic Architecture: A project that questions the notion of freedom in the age of algorithms.
Maya Shenfeld (IL), Entangled Dimensions: A network of loudspeakers that examines social media’s impact on our daily lives.
Lisa Tuyala (DE), The Poetry of Getting Lost: A musical performance that explores the artist’s family story through language’s (im)possibilities.
Scott McLaughlin (IE), Resonant Paths: An installation of suspended everyday objects that viewers can play as instruments.
Stephen Kwok (US), 6 pm: A performance presents multiple events hosted by locals as a single event.